Charity begins at the IRD

In today's Herald, the Mactional Government are still banging on about widening tax rebates/loopholes for charitable donations.
This despite the fact that studies have shown that for most people, the incentive of a tax rebate is low on their list of reasons for giving.

When in opposition, National made noises about how 'complicated' the tax system is and how it needed to be 'simplified' yet now in Government, they want to add an additional layer of complication of which the net benefit to the country will be close to zero. However companies and individuals will now have new ways to avoid/evade paying tax by claiming rebates for 'gifts' that were going to given anyway or imagined 'gifts in kind' that do not exist except on a filed tax return.

In a rather hamfisted way I did try make this point in a comment at The Standard yesterday, but as is traditional amongst Standardnistas it was ignored in favour of calling people 'fuckwits' and 'pricks'.

Zero Tolerance for ACT's paedophiles

From today's Christchurch Press

A 60-year-old former teacher and ACT Party general election candidate from North Canterbury has been found guilty on 24 child pornography charges.

Malcolm Albert Spark of Kaiapoi was yesterday remanded in custody after the jury returned guilty verdicts at the end of a three-day trial in the Christchurch District Court. Spark stood for ACT in the 1999 election, winning 584 votes in the Waimakariri seat. He was also on the party list, at No 41.

...

The jury convicted him on all the charges: 10 counts of making an objectionable publication and 14 counts of knowingly possessing an objectionable publication.

The publications related to child sexual exploitation.

The department's case was that Spark had taken part in on-line chats with girls aged from nine to 15 in 2005, which led to him obtaining images which he put with a summary of what he had learned about the girls during the chats.

It seems that in 2005, Mr Spark was already feeling pangs of guilt and wrote a letter to the Press editor in what now appears to be a blatant attempt to justify his own predatory behaviour.

Burning witches?
Sexual fantasy is an area kept mostly out of the public arena. I imagine there are a huge number of sexual fantasy categories of which sex with a child is one.

In order to avoid creating more victims, we need to find out if people who engage in sexual fantasies actually expect to live out those fantasies in real life and if there is any evidence that sexual fantasies are lived out.

If these people actually don't pose a threat, then we need to be very careful we are not burning witches.

Soon digital artists will be able to create photograph quality images of people to satisfy many people's sexual fantasies. When viewing becomes truly victimless, will a crime still be committed?

Finally, are we running the risk of heading towards a society with a new category of police -- thought police?

MALCOLM SPARK Kaiapoi
THE PRESS, 26 FEB 2005, Edition 2, Page 12.

Perturbed by the lack of response to his suggestion of legalising child pornography, Spark tried again the following week.

Why no discussion?
Last week I wrote a letter on sexual fantasies and child pornography under the heading Burning Witches (Feb 26). It is an issue I perceived to be important and I fully expected a large amount of correspondence. To date, apart from two supportive phone calls, there has been no correspondence.

I conclude the subject is of no importance, or it is too frightening for most people to speak up about. If it is the latter, then it is a sad commentary on the state of our free society.

For a society to be truly free, any subject will be able to be discussed openly. The test of freedom comes when the subject is a difficult one. If I am right, in NZ we have still some distance to go before we can consider ourselves part of a free society.

MALCOLM SPARK Kaiapoi
THE PRESS, 5 MAR 2005, Edition 2, Page 12.

Two things we can learn from this,
1) This guy makes David Garrett look like a fine upstanding citizen.
2) If this wannabe-pedophile was ranked #41 on ACT's list, what does that say about those ranked 42 or below?

Show us your Titular Honours!

The Mactional Government has unleashed it's newest and most futuristic idea yet to turbo-charge New Zealand inc. Bringing back Sirs and Dames!
This is wonderful news for (soon to be) Dame Jenny Shipley, now she'll be able to command a much higher fee to sit on the board of a Chinese bank.

And a note to Allen Stanford, if Antigua ever takes that knighthood back off you, we've got plenty for sale down here in NZ.

Video analysis follows.

The 0.0001% Doctrine

In recent comments to the extremist Investigategate magazine Prime Minister Brian John Key said that climate change legislation needs to have flexibility built into it in case "the climate sceptics are right".
It is an interesting proposition to have government legislation written with discredited conspiracy theories in mind.

Perhaps PM John could implement this style of conspiracy aware government into other policy fields. Here are some helpful suggestions to get him started.

1. Rewrite Kiwisaver legislation for the possible return of Jesus and the ascension of true believers to heaven.
2. Ask MFAT to develop an action plan in the circumstances that President Obama declares the US to be a Muslim caliphate.
3. Commision a study into the link between vaccines and autism.
4. Ask for flexibility surrounding restrictions on the sale of tobacco for the possibility that it does not cause cancer.
5. Ask the DPMC to investigate links between himself and the Illuminati.
6. Direct the Civil Avation Authority to create guidelines for the piloting of alien spaceships in NZ airspace.
7. Do away with regulations on air and water pollution so as to pre-emptively appease the future robot masters of New Zealand.
8. Investigate links between the consumption of KFC and impotence in Pacific Islanders.
9. Double the amount of electric lighting in government institutions so as to further dissuade lizard people from taking public office.
10. Remove fluoride from the public water supply for fear it causes schizophrenia.
    

Live from the Job Summit

Guilt upon exaggeration

Guilty upon accusation is a good brand to sell this issue around, however it is just ever so slightly hyperbolic. We have various characters going around saying how "guilty upon accusation" in Section 92A is unfair and not the kiwi way. Yet the Mactional Government recently passed legislation under urgency that allows employees in 'small businesses' to be fired within the first three months with virtually no recourse.
Being fired from a job for no reason, is that not "guilt upon accusation"?
Where is the anger in the NZ wankosphere about this law that comes into effect next week?
There is little outrage about "my rights" and "freedom" around this law since it will mainly affect people on lower wages - the working class (are we still allowed to say that?), not a significant demographic in the NZ blog clique. That's not to say opposing Section 92A is the wrong thing to do, the law is an ass. But it seems people are very choosy and myopic about "rights" and "freedoms" nowadays.

Our Precedent is Black

The 'controversy' around Section 92A exhibits all the traits of modern ridculousness, the act itself is absurd, as too are the opinions of the media industries that support it. But so too is are some of the protests against it. A strong and forceful message has been sent to the Government by thousands of people changing their profile picture on Facebook and bebo. And twitter as well!!! That will really stick it to them.

And while the Power/Joyce/Finlayson troika are reeling from that killer blow, the NZ wankosphere is going to 'black-out' their webpages for two whole hours!!! Of course you can still access rss feeds and read any new material after the 'protest' is finished. But hey, it's symbolic man, all the wankosphere joining together to deliver a meaningless act of self-expression that will invetiably recieve a meaningless and empty response.

Orewa Resurrection

Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!